NMC to take up footpath repairing on war-footing

Taking a serious cognizance of ‘The Hitavada’ campaign on damaged footpaths in Nagpur, Nagpur Municipal Corporation has come up with a plan that would help in repairing the footpath. NMC is taking the work on war-footing. ‘The Hitavada’ ran the campaign ‘Where is the footpath’ for a month where the newspaper published the photographs of damaged footpaths on several roads making it difficult for the pedestrians to use them. When ‘The Hitavada’ talked to Abhijeet Bangar, Municipal Commissioner on the issue he unveiled the plan. He said that he keenly observed the campaign run by the newspaper but was helpless due to election code of conduct.

On Tuesday he convened a meeting where he discussed the issue with Superintendent Engineer Manoj Talewar and others about the repairing the footpaths. Bangar explained, “There are obstructions on the footpaths. There are debris of building material lying on footpaths at several places. Vehicles kept on the footpath making it parking place. There are potholes in the footpaths which are made to plant trees or any other reasons and left to the fate of people. At some other places paver blocks are damaged, at some footpaths chamber covers are kept open, at some places levels are not properly made making it difficult especially for the divyangs that too the visually impaired people to walk. I thought of all these aspects and decided to take up the work the way we did dechoking of trees.”

During the dechoking of trees NMC planned it in phasewise manner. First it had taken small roads and then jumped to bigger roads. “In case of footpaths too we have to go with a phasewise plan else we may not be able to complete it. I have given deadline to my officers and asked them to complete it in short span of time. Now winds of winter session of State legislature would began to flow so we have to do it on urgent basis. By November 30 I think we would be able to complete maximum work of footpath